Review Blog

Aug 13 2015

Winter siege by Ariana Franklin and Samantha Norman

Bantam Books, 2015. ISBN 9780857501479
(Age: 13+) Highly recommended. Medieval England, Crime, Redemption,
Civil war. When Ariana Franklyn died in 2011, she left behind a
small body of work set in medieval times involving a woman trained
as a physician solving crimes through forensic investigation always
a step in front of those who wanted to kill her as a witch. These
four novels, Mistress of the art of death, The death
maze, Relics of the dead and The assassin's prayer
were mesmerising in their Medieval setting, showing attitudes to
women and medicine at the time. But she had a last novel in
progress, and her daughter, Samantha Norman has completed it and it
is now published.
This story takes a slightly different route from the previous four,
detailing the lives of Gwil, a mercenary who rescues a young girl
raped and left for dead by a monk known for his cruelty. It is the
time of civil war between the forces of King Stephen and his sister
Matilda, involving much of southern England.
Gwil and Pen take refuge in a castle where Maud is the one in
charge, but her enforced marriage sees her relinquish control to an
older man, now her husband, and his whore, Kingva. When he has a
stroke, the only person Kingva turns to is a monk who arrives in the
castle with King Stephen's men, on the lookout for a piece of
parchment taken by Pen, the girl he raped. When Maud refuses to
submit to King Stephen's men after sheltering and then helping his
rival, Matilda, escape, a siege lays the castle open to treachery.
This is a powerful historical crime story set in turbulent times
where lives are often lost for little or no reason. The callousness
of wondering mercenaries is appalling, and Gwil seeks to redeem
himself by caring for Pen. The narrator of the story evokes a change
of heart from his scribe, who is at first condemning of the
participants in the story but by the end learns compassion and
empathy.
The episodes detailing the siege are just wonderful, laying before
the reader the extremes of life lived during such a time.
A wonderful thriller, following the development of Pen and her
protector Gwil, the shadow of the monk is always there, even though
Pen fortunately has no recollection of the incident. A menacing read
right to the last.
Fran Knight